Printing process



Feb. 4, 1941. G. SAUERWEIN PRINTING PROCESS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 4, 1938 fly. 3

Izav'eza Z0]? yea 'razerwez'zz, M )4 ed {M Filed April 4, 195a G. SAUERWEIN PRINTING PROCESS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Fee. 4, 1941 r 2,230,655

STAB S ATE 2,230,655

PRINTING PROCESS Georges Sauerwein, Paris, France Application April 4, 1938, Serial No. 199,757 In France December 2, 1937 3 Claims. (01. 270-1) The invention described hereinafter refers to bottom, of a combination which has approxipublications such as newspapers which are mately the length of the cut of the newspaper. printed on relatively fast rotary printing m'a- It is obvious that a piece which has the length chines, the register and quality of printing of of cut of the newspaper and is taken at any 5 which is relatively rough (for example a rotary part of such a strip will always contain all the 5 machine producing 35 to 40,000 folded newspasubjects forming the combination; however, it pers per hour, two at a, time, from a strip of pawill only be possible to examine those through per of which the width is double that of the which the lines of out of the top and of the botopened sheet of the newspaper), and it relates tom of the page pass, if the remaining top portion to the problem of introducing into said publicaof the subjects which are cut by the bottom of the 10 tions special impressions, in particular coloured page is either materially or imaginarily brought impressions, which are obtained by means of the near the remaining bottom portions of the same most varied and the most improved printing subjects which re-appear at the top of the same processes and are printed beforehand by means page. These cut subjects are furthermore deof a rotary machine, the better finished work of creased or increased by the height of the small 15 which is necessarily much slower (for example band of displacement of out which was mentioned 10,000 impressions per hour for a colour-printabove. ing machine), on a strip of paper which is re- This cutting in two of certain of the subjects wound in a roll after printing and then delivered of the combination has a certain drawback; it

to the rotary newspaper machine in order opis proposed to overcome same by giving the com- 20 tionally to receive additional impressions as it bination of subjects a substantially smaller passes through same and in any case to be cut, length than that of the: out of the newspaper, cemented and folded in the newspaper. that is to say that the clich which serves to con- The difficulty of this problem arises from the struct the pro-printing cylinder will have a sub- OFECE fact that, owing to the variations of length of stantially shorter length than the length of cut 25 the pre-printed strip, which variations occur for of the rotary printing machine; in order to make various reasons between the pre-printing and certain that any subject which is amputated by the utilization in the rotary newspaper machine, the bottom out of the sheet, for example nearly the length of the pages which are pre-printed at its base, entirely re-appears at the top, it is on said strip is no longer the same, when they necessary for this diiierence of length to be at 30 pass through the rotary printing machine, as at least equal to the height of said subject. Said the time when they were being pro-printed, that difference of length will be called: repetition is to say said length is no longer equal to the band. height of cut of the newspaper; initially this If the group of subjects of the clich is formed equality was moreover only obtained in an apby subjects of small dimensions and which are 35 proximate manner. Each pre-printed page is substantially equal and said subjects are distherefore out with a small displacement (a detributed for example in n transverse bands of crease of the order of a millimeter for example) substantially equal heights, the length of out which is added to the previous displacements at must contain n+1 bands, that is to say that the each cut of the sheet; the line of cut therefore "difference of length between the pre-printing 40 travels periodically from the top tothe bottom clich and the length of cut of the newspaper (or conversely) of the pre-p-rinted page. This must be equal to the height of a band of subdrawback has hitherto made this process inapjects, that is to say of one subject. The same plicable. result is obviously obtained if all the small sub- In order to overcome same, the process accordjects in the combination which are substantially 45 ing to the invention consists in making the comequal are arranged in any places instead of be position of the clich of the pro-printing cylinder ing arranged along transverse bands.

and the arrangement of the pro-printed strip It should be observed that in the case of small such that said strip can support the cut at any subjects, for example 4 to 5 .cm. in height, the part of the impression. presence of said repetition band does not cause 50 In particular the pro-printed strip will be any space to be wasted relatively to that which composed like a wall paper having subjects, obcould be used if the pre-p-rinted strip were to jects or persons, that is to say that it will carry receive, like that of the newspaper, an impresthe continuous reproduction, without interrupsion of successive separate pages instead of being tion or line of demarcation at the top and at the printed continuously like a wall paper; in fact,

in a newspaper blanks of 2 to 2 cm. are left at the top and at the bottom making in all an unused band of about cm. Furthermore, there is no objection to the white side margins that are left in the printed pages not eio'sting on the continuously pre-printed strip.

If the composition of the group comprises subjects of different heights, it has been seen that for any subject to be shown at least once completely on any page, the height of the repetition band must be at least equal to the height of the highest subject.

If there is a large difference of height between the various subjects of the group forming the clich and if the repetition band has been given as indicated above the height of the tallest subject, a fairly large number of small subjects will be contained in this wide repetition band and will consequently be reproduced twice on the same page; this will produce an unfortunate effect of monotony; this may furthermore not be advantageous as regards the efiiciency of the advertising, for example if a very large number of subjects is to be advertised. The invention includes various means of overcoming this drawback.

The invention furthermore includes the preprinting cliches and cylinders which are constructed for the application of the above process and also the newspapers and other publications produced by said process.

By way of example, three pre-printed strips for applying said process have been described hereinafter and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a portion of a strip pre-printed with an advertising page of a large store for toys and New Years gifts.

Fig. 2 shows diagrammatically a pre-printed strip with lateral columns left blank for printing in the rotary machine.

Fig. 3 shows diagrammatically a strip printed in colour with a repetition design and intended to receive an overprinted text when passing through the rotary printing machine.

Figs. 4 to 7 show modifications.

According to Fig. 1, the strip of paper I is pre-printed with an endless cylinder, the developed printing plate of which, extending from the line 2, 3 to the line 4, 5 has a length which is equal to the spacing of the cuts of the rotary printing machine and shows for example all the New Years gift toys such as 6, accompanied by their number and their price and distributed in n transverse bands of the same height, which toys are offered for sale by a department store the name and the other useful indications of which are shown in two identical scrolls I, 8.

Said strip I, which is pro-printed in colours, if it is printed on both its faces, and it is not desired to overprint same, passes through the rotary printing machine solely to be cut, assembled, folded. If it is only printed in colours on one face, it will receive an impression on the other face in the rotary printing machine. As the length of the printing plate 2, 34, 5 of the upper colour printing cylinder (within the limits of small errors of construction) is equal to the spacing of the cuts of the rotary printing machine, lts impression on the strip I also has this length at the time of printing; if this initial equality were absolute and if said strip were immediately passed through the rotary printing machine, it would be an easy matter, by means of an initial adjustment, to obtain the cut exactly on the lines 2, 3-4, 5. But, between the time of its printing and that when it passes through the rotary printing machine, said strip I will generally have varied in length to an extent which may attain several millimetres per cut spacing; consequently, the cut in the rotary printing machine will be effected with a, displacement of said several millimetres for each sheet, and such displacement will progressively increase until it quickly reaches the height of a sheet and then starts again. With the composition chosen, this variation of the out relatively to the impression is of no practical importance, since if a part of a row of toys 6 is cut at the bottom, the missing part will be found. again at the top, plus or minus the small band corresponding to the variation of length of a few millimetres of the sheet, so that if the top and the bottom are placed close to each other, the cut row would be re-formed.

Although this drawback of a cut in the middle of the pictures of a row is a small one for the desired advertising purpose, it can be overcome by a special formation of the printing plate; the length 2, 4 of the cliche will be chosen the height ofa band less than the height of cut 2, 4' so that the row of toys II) which terminates it at the bottom will be repeated at the top of the page 2, 3, 4, 5 at 9; there will be n+1 bands in the page of the newspaper, the pre-printing cylinder still having only 11. bands but smaller ones than in the previous example. Thus, if the lower cut encroaches on the lower row, the upper cut will necessarily leave the upper row intact; all the rows will therefore be distinctly visible since each of them will be shown at least once entirely.

It is possible, as shown in Fig. 2, to make the coloured plate occupy, in the space I I, I2I3, I4 of a newspaper page, only the central region I5, I 6-H, I8, thus reserving on the sides two virgin bands I9, 20 in which text will be printed when it passes through the rotary printing machine. It is obvious that said virgin bands can be placed at any part of the page, conditionally on their being always in the longitudinal direction (direction in which the rolls pass through the rotary printing machine).

According to Fig. 3, the coloured impression is formed by an advertising figure which is periodically reproduced at 2I, 22, 23, 24 with a suitable arrangement and on a sufficiently reduced scale for one page always to contain a number of copies. On said coloured impression can be printed a, text when passing through the rotary printing machine. The out at any places 25, 26-21, 28 is in no way objectionable as regards the advertising effect.

It will be realized from the foregoing that the difiiculty due to the necessity of registering the out has thus been definitely eliminated by causing said necessity todisappear by means of the arrangement of the coloured impression in a manner that makes it indifferent to the position of the cut. This process, the simplicity of which is remarkable, offers the considerable advantage of being immediately applicable to all existing rotary printing machines.

If the large subjects shown, for example fashion figures, are of great height and of small width, it will be advantageous (see Fig. 4) to orient all the subjects at 90 to the axis of the strip of paper, instead of orienting them as usual in the direction of said strip, so as only to have to give the repetition band the small width of a figure instead of its great height. This however has the drawback of compelling the reader to place the newspaper widthwise to read the advertisement! If the subjects are left turned in the usual direction, a pre-printing cylinder clich can be adopted which, instead of comprising the single group 10 (Fig. 5) considered hitherto, will be formed by two groups 40, 4! each having the same dimensions as the previous one and containing respectively the same objects, said objects being arranged respectively at the same height in the two groups, but being displaced widthwise from. one group to the other. In the printing plate segment 40, a few subjects 42, 43, 44 have been shown diagrammatically at various heights. The printing plate segment 4| will be formed by the same objects, at the same height, but displaced, for example $2 to 42', 43 to'43', 44 to M. In a newspaper sheet 45 obtained with this pie-printing cylinder having two segments 42, M, the fairly numerous small subjects 42 which are located in the top region G6 are reproduced in the lower wide repetition band 41; as said subjects are transversely displaced from one band to the other, the repetition effect is thus less apparent. It is obvious that more than two successive sectors Ml, 4! could be placed in the same pro-printing plate.

This same artifice of a printing cylinder having a plurality of segments, as will be seen, further enables, in the case of a group having large and small subjects, the repetition band to be given only the height of the small subjects while adopting a composition which will always ensure at least one whole picture for each of the large subjects.

There will be for example, for a newspaper having a height of cut of 60 cm. (Fig. 6), a model group a, b, c, d of dress-making, millinery articles (dresses, hats, ties, gloves comprising small figures of about 4 to 5 cm., hats,

ties, gloves and large figures of 10 to 12 cm., dresses.

If 12 cm. is chosen for the height of the repetition band, the height a, c of the pre-printing cliche can only have (SO-12:48 cm.; if it had been possible to choose 5 cm., it would have had 60-5 55 cm.; the larger the repetition band, the smaller is the clich, so if it has been decided. to place a predetermined number of subjects in the group, it will be necessary, in the case of a large repetition band of 12 cm., to show them on a smaller scale-and the number of subjects repeated twice, which are those included in the repetition band, will be more considerable.

It is therefore advantageous, inv the case of a combination having small and large subjects, to endeavour to eliminate the rule set forth above and which consists in giving the repetition band the height of the large subjects. If it is given that of the small ones, it is quite certain that if all the large subjects of the combination are different, it will not be possible to have all said subjects whole at least once in each cut. This therefore leads to taking, to some extent, the repetition band of large height for the large subjects on the composition of the group, that is to say to decreasing the height of the series formed by all the different subjects of large height, for example 3 I, 32, 33 and to reproducing (Fig. 7) the model of dress No. 1 as the model of dress No. 4, instead of having a series of four different models.

But there is thus in the height of the preprinting plate I the series of large subjects 1, 2, 3, 1 the last of which is identical with the first,

that is to say that said series does not close on itself, as is absolutely necessary, since by printing continuously with such a cylinder the sequence 1, 2, 3, 1-1, 2, 3, 1-1, 2, 3, 1 will be obtained and not the sequence 1, 2, 3-1, 2, 3-1,

2, 3, as would be required.

In order to remedy this, the pre-printing cylinder, the involute of which must in this case be approximately equal to a plurality of heights of cut, must be divided into partial segments each having as their involute the height of cut decreased by the repetition band of small subjects, that is to say divided into a plurality of segments the aggregate of which will form for the large subjects a multiple series which is closed on itself, viz. for example (case of Fig. 7)

1st segment 2nd segment 3rd segment ,1, 2, 3-1 2, 3-1, 2 3-1, 2, 3

These partial segments, which are three in number in the example chosen, forming the total printing plate, will be different from each other as regards the vertical sequence of the large subjects, but each will include the same small subjects arranged identically in the vertical direction, the widthwise position of the subjects, whatever' they may be, being immaterial.

In a general manner, for N large subjects in vertical sequence, the following N repeated subjects contained with N in the same segment may be identical with the first N subjects of the series, and in the same order, conditionally on N being a sub-multiple of N (K being a whole number) in this case, it will require K segments, or partial printing plates, to form a ore-printing cylinder co-ntaining a multiple series of large subjects which closes on itself.

In fact, as the height of cut of the newspaper is greater than the involute of a segment of the pre-printing cylinder, to the extent of the height adopted for the repetition band, the last repeated subject 1 of the first segment can be extended outside said first segment, into the second segment, to the extent of the height of said repetition band, that is to say that there is a little more height available than was stated above to lodge a series of subjects such as 1, 2, 3, 1, and consequently the subjects may be given a slightly greater height.

If the more general case is considered, the following may be stated: if

h is the height of cut of the newspaper,

L the total involute length of the pre-printing cylinder having a plurality of segments,

to the number of different subjects which each appear whole at least once in the cut of the newspaper, along a. line parallel with the direction of unwinding of the rolls,

2 the height of one of said subjects (including the necessary spacing),

s the total number of subjects of which the height is z,

n the number of series of w subjects=i L Then obviously 2:;

w is a whole number, sis also a whole number as a function of the conditions of the continuous impression.

- 5:12 must be a whole number, since for the same reason, 11. whole series are required, therefore 5 must not be a prime number. (save if 111:1)

It is already known that, at whatever spot the cut of the newspaper falls, it is necessary for the w subjects to be completely contained in said cut, and consequently one subject more must exist in this height of cut, which can be expressed by:

z(w+ 1) :h

its being obviously possible for z to be smaller.

in w+1 therefore forms the upper limit of the height 2 of a subject for a single repetition, and this is necessary and sufiicient in the case in which it is desired to find what is the possible number of subjects of a maximum height.

But in the same height of cut, the subjects may have variable dimensions, if to the equation:

=n (whole) and: w

s=whole number which is not a prime number (4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, etc.) save if w=l w=who1e number The examination of these simple formulae shows that it may be advantageous to have L (involute of the cylinder) much greater than h (height of cut).

In order that s may be as large as possible, in L=sz, 2 being fixed, if L increases 8 increases. Now, since s increases and is not a prime number, there is more choice for w therefore more varieties for z.

A length will therefore be chosen for example L such that:

L=muz (2 being for example the height of the average or the most numerous subjects) starting from 2 (ur+l)=h, and thus it will also be possible to have in the page subjects of smaller size r, it than 2 or y, y, y of larger size than 2.

However, for the subjects at there will be greater repetitions than 1 subject if all the possible subjects on the same longitudinal line are shown. For the subjects 11, in general this small drawback will exist. However, it can be overcome by utilizing the possibility of taking integrally advantage of the repetition band. 1'. A simple calculation shows that in this case, the (whole) number P of partial segments should satisfy the equation:

Generally, the aforesaid defect will be attenuated, particularly for the (larger) subjects 2/ by calculating them very large and making them only occupy a part of the height which is assigned to them.

In the case in which the rotary printing machines for which the pre-printed strip is intended have two insetting-folding machines at their outlet, it is necessary, for example if the page which is ore-printed in colour is to form a single inset in the middle of the newspaper, for the pre-printed strip to have a width equal to double that of the single page of the newspaper; there will therefore be two widthwise juxtaposed impressions on said strip. But as the two inset-ting-folding machines are symmetrical, if the two sheets produced by the double pre-printed strip cut lengthwise through its middle are in identical positions relatively to their back and front, top and bottom, right and left, they will be located in reversed positions after insetting according to whether they issue from one or the other insetting=folding machine. In order to overcome this drawback, the two right and left halves of the pre-printing cylinder of double width are provided with printing plates which are arranged differently, the arrangement being such that finally the inset coloured sheets are arranged in the same manner in all the newspapers, whether they issue from one insetting-folding machine or the other.

For the practical application of this process, it is necessary to point out some precautions it is useful to take for satisfactorily printing the preprinted roll, which precautions are necessitated by the fact that instead of being immediately cut into sheets, as usual, the pre-printed strip must be wound again and then be used in the rotary printing machine. Whether said strip be preprinted, either on a single face, or on both faces, it is necessary for the pre-printed parts to be completely dry when rewinding which is eflected immediately as the strip issues from the machine. As such a condition is not imposed in general in the processes for which the present machines have hitherto been intended, it will frequently occur, if the following precautions which are particular to the present invention are not taken, that said machines and also the inks utilized and the arrangements made for the composition of the coloured cliches, will not enable this result to be obtained. It is therefore necessary to use inks which dry very quickly, adding thereto if necessary larger amounts of drying products, to avoid the presence in the composition of the drawing of too extended plain surfaces intended to receive too great a thickness of ink, particularly if they are Zones of black colour resulting from the superposition of three (or more) fundamental colours. If in certain parts the ink was not dry when rewinding, marks would occur on the opposite face of the strip against which the undried zone bears and frequently two thicknesses of paper would stick together which would cause the regions thus stuck to tear when the roll was being unwound in the rotary printing machine.

' What I claim is:

1. The method of providing newspapers with special inserts of definite dimensions which comprises, printing on a continuous web arepeated design in which the design is composed of a plurality of design elements and in which the dimension of the design parallel to the longitudinal dimension of the web is substantially equal to one dimension of the finished insert minus the similar dimension of any single design element it is desired to show in full on all of the inserts; cutting said continuous web transversely into separate sheets indiscriminately as to said design with the distance between cuts being substantially equal to said one dimension, and finally assembling said separate sheets into the newspapers as inserts therefor.

2'. The method of providing newspapers with special inserts of definite dimensions which comprises, printing on a continuous web a repeated design in which the design is composed of a plurality of design elements and in which the dimension of the design parallel to the longitudinal dimension of the web is substantially equal to one dimension of the finished insert minus the similar dimension of any single design element it is desired to show in full on all of the inserts; cutting said continuous web transversely into separate sheets indiscriminately as to said design with the distance between cuts being substantially equal to said one dimension, over printing a separate design on said sheet, said overprinting being in register with said cuts, and finally assembling said separate sheets into the newspapers as inserts therefor.

3. The method of providing newspapers or the like printed on high speed rotary presses with preprinted inserts comprising: reprinting on a continuous Web a picture repeating itself without blank intervals thereby forming a continuous composition with the dimension of said picture parallel to the longitudinal dimension of the Web being smaller than the similar dimension of the finished insert; rerolling said web after the printing operation; supplying the cutting, assembling and folding means of a rotary press during the printing of a newspaper or the like with the said preprinted continuous web; and cutting the web to the length of the newspaper sheets without adjusting the cutting lines with respect to the continuous composition, whereby each of the cut sheets will have said picture thereon at least once, but successive sheets will not be identical.

GEORGES SAUERWEIN. 

